—a matter which was greatly delayed until now under all previous legislative systems and under all previous constitutions. This was considered unimportant. It seemed that one could leave the old ways in place locally. We think otherwise. We are convinced that if our revolution has achieved genuine successes, it is precisely because we have always devoted the greatest attention to local authorities, to the experience of the localities themselves. If the October 1917 revolution achieved such immediate successes that by spring 1918 it seemed to us that the war was already over—in reality it had only just begun, and began in its worst form, in the form of civil war; in reality, peace with the Germans meant support by those Germans of the worst elements of civil war; in reality, that peace with the Germans of the time, which collapsed by autumn, meant time and again support of these elements by the Allied powers, who themselves accused us of concluding peace with the Germans. And if, I say, the revolution accomplished its work with such rapidity in a matter of months, even weeks, it is because we relied entirely upon local forces, because we opened to them complete scope for action, because it was from the localities that we expected that enthusiasm which created the irresistibility and speed of action of our revolution. I know that since then our localities have had to experience many quite varied, so to speak, perturbations. The relation of the localities to the center constituted no small task for us, and I do not at all wish to say that we always resolved this task ideally: given the general level of culture that we possess, we have no reason to dream of such ideal resolution. But that it has been resolved more sincerely, truthfully, and durably than in any other state whatsoever—this we can say boldly.

In conclusion, I shall touch upon one more question, which particularly interests me and which, I think, should also interest all of you, although formally it stands neither on your agenda nor in the list of questions. This is the question of our state apparatus—an old and eternally new question.

250
V. I. LENIN

In 1918, in the month of August, we conducted a census of our apparatus in Moscow. We obtained the figure of 231,000 state and Soviet officials in Moscow, a figure encompassing both central officials and local Moscow, municipal officials. Recently, in October 1922, we conducted this census again, confident that we had reduced our bloated apparatus and that it must surely turn out to be smaller. It turned out to equal 243,000 people. There you have the results of all the reductions. This example will require still greater labor of study and comparison. Then, in 1918, when we, so to speak, in the first flush of reforms, conducted such a census, we, to put it plainly, could extract almost nothing of value from its results. There was no time for that. Civil war left us not a single free moment. Now we hope that this will be done. We are confident that our apparatus, which suffers from very many deficiencies, which is bloated far more than twofold, which very often works not for us but against us—this truth we need not fear to speak, even from the podium of the highest legislative institution of our republic—will be improved. To improve it requires much labor and skill. We have approaches to very serious work on the question of what precisely this improvement should consist of, but so far only approaches—individual articles, individual local investigations. If we all leave here with the determination to devote far greater attention to this question than is ordinarily done, with the determination to spend less time on fuss and bustle—and we constantly spend an excessive amount of time on this—and if we study our apparatus in earnest and work upon it year after year, then this will be an enormous conquest, this will be the guarantee of our success. We must have the courage to say that we are creating our apparatus spontaneously. The best workers came forward and undertook the most difficult duties both in the military sphere and in the civilian sphere, undertook them all too often incorrectly, but were able to correct themselves and work. The relation between these, perhaps,

251